All Forum Posts by: Joseph Sauer

I'm learning that lowering prices should be one of the last moves you make, cause then it's just a race to the bottom with the competition.

I'd look and see if other STRs in the area are experiencing similar issues first, before doing anything. Then you'll know if it's just you or the market. If you're doing your job as a host, then it's probably not you.

Then I'd do all the other things (i.e. update listing pages, rearrange/update photos, etc.) before price lowering. Also, from everything thing I've read book lead times are shortening nationwide, so I'd hold off on any price edits just yet. 

I don't know if they make them. Most jurisdictions require a visual alarm along with the sound alarm. More notifications the better. Most importantly, it protects the guests and also your butt legally if anything were to happen. Best of luck! 

Be happy to help! I'll DM contact info 

I agree with @John Underwood. Partial refund and an apologetic message is absolutely appropriate. The money lost on the refund will be far less then the potential money lost down the road if they leave a negative review. 

Hi Kwanza!

Cleaning and maintenance prices vary market to market. I have no idea how much you would spend month to month on maintenance. That's dependent on the age of the home, are you geared towards families with kids or more of an older crowd, and other factors. It's really hard to plan that out. You can call other owners in your area and see how much they're paying, but even then its not going to be the same as what you'd pay with your specific property under your management and care. I put aside 3%-5%of revenue for maintenance depending on the age of the home. <10 years =closer to 3% and >10 years I'll do closer to 5%

I'm hesitant with warranty plans. With my experience they don't go on a timeline, it's always taken weeks to get anything fixed, and usually requires more than one visit to get the issues fixed. With STRs you need problems fixed fast and on the first visit. Warranty plans don't play that game. 

Cleaning costs also varies market to market. My gut reaction say $300+ a turn but I really have no idea. Best thing to do is go on Airbnb and see what similar houses in your market are charging for a cleaning fee. That'll give you the best estimates. 

hope this helps! Good luck with your investment! 

Cleaner is per turn and through the Cash app. Some cleaners will do weekly and biweekly payments, but those are far and few between. Mostly larger cleaning businesses. 

Local FB STR and STR Cleaners group pages are going to be gold mines for potential cleaners. You'll probably have to go through a couple to find the right fit, but you shouldn't have a problem with finding available cleaners to tryout. Every time I post to find a last minute cleaner when my regular cleaner is sick, I'll get 5 to 10 responses in an hour usually.

As for handyman, I've always used the local plumber or electrician, so it's a pay per service. I don't have "a guy" who goes and does all the fixes. From talking to the few handymen in my area, you need to have a decent portfolio to make it worth it for them to be on call for you. Not the case for me yet. 

@Jeffrey Hodges 

Totally understand. In my short experience and from everything i've read the cream, always rises to the top regardless of the economy. As long as you've done your homework with market research and analysis and you provide great guest service and experience, you'll do great!

Hey Jeffrey,

Congrats on the new beach property! 

Software wise, I use Hospitable. From my experience, it's incredibly user friendly and is one of the best at guest communication. It made it sooooo easy to have message auto send to guests when they book and a few days before check-in. You can set up auto responses to common questions you might be getting. They also pair with most price optimization sites super easily and you can control a lot of the homes smart devices. It's made our first year in the STR space way less of a hassle.

We haven't gotten into the direct booking game yet. We have one property and currently working towards our 2nd, so I have a hard time justifying the cost and time spent to create a separate booking site. Airbnb and VRBO spend a ton on marketing and I'm ok taking advantage of their ad spend for now. I plan to start using direct booking once we have more properties in our portfolio. 

Hope this helps! Good luck! 

@Carolyn Fuller well said with that last sentence! Providing our kids with the choices down the road a big reason a lot of us do this!  

John Underwood summed that up beautifully. And State Farm, at least in Indiana, does not insure STRs. We went through Proper Insurance (they specialize is STR Insurance), which also acts as our primary home insurance. You don't have to go this route, but it was easy and really the only other option around our area. You might have more options where you live